Rep. Todd "Legitimate Rape" Akin May Be Staging His Comeback

By
Anna Breslaw

Apr 26, 2013

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Did you know the human female sex organ features vagina dentata? No? Neither did we, until Missouri's Republican Rep. Todd Akin so kindly informed us with his maaaaajor league "legitimate rape" gaffe in August of last year.

The comment, as I'm sure you guys all know, revolved around Akin's belief that women couldn't get pregnant by their rapists, because "women's bodies [having ways] to shut the whole thing down," as long as the rape is legitimate (ughhhh). Akin's bid for Senate crumbled in the wake of the instant backlash, from women's rights supporters and biologists alike. Because, uh, that's just not how science works. It was a career ender. Or so we thought.

To our utter dismay, like the disgraced Anthony Weiner earlier this month, Akin may be trying to burnish his reputation and return to politics — at least, he hinted as such during an TV interview with St. Louis's KSDK, via MSNBC. "It's one of those things that depends on the circumstances really. I don't rule anything out. I consider it a bright new future and I'm interested to see what the possibilities are."

And on the infamous comment, he offers a kinda-apology. Okay, an excuse. "If you start to blame everyone else for something that happened you didn't like, it will destroy you. It will eat you alive. All of us are fallible, we make mistakes, and we say things the wrong way." (Sure, except not all of us attempt to pass legislature based on our utter ignorance of basic biology.)